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Subject: PageMaker Frequently Asked Questions, part 3/3 Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pagemakr,alt.aldus.pagemaker,alt.answers,news.answers From: gwp@cs.purdue.edu (Geoffrey William Peters) Date: 21 Jun 1994 11:07:06 GMT Archive-name: pagemaker-faq/part3 Last-modified: 1994/06/17 Version: 31 This is part three of the Frequently Asked Questions listing for the Pagemaker Bitnet Listserv. This file can be retrieved in its entirity along with other Pagemaker related documents via anonymous FTP at ftp.dopig.uab.edu in the info/pagemakr/faq directory. Hypertexted versions are also available. Please see part one of the FAQ for more information. ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Importing / Exporting Files ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.1 What is PostScript? What different types of graphic file formats exist? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This question delves into the pros and cons of .EPS, .PCX, .TIF file formats, among others. The two main graphic formats are bitmapped/raster images (e.g. TIFF and PCX) and vector images (e.g. PostScript). Bitmapped images are based on pixels while the vector images are based on curves and line segments. As a result, bitmapped images have poor qualities when expanded to higher resolution than their original size; typically jagged edges, or jaggies, become more evident when bitmapped images are increased in size. PostScript images, on the other hand, maintain their definitions when their size is increased. There are many utilities available that will convert between the many different file formats. Regarding PostScript, it is important to remember that PostScript is fundamentally a programming language that is used mainly in graphical environments. It also tends to be oriented towards printer/plotter type devices, although Display PostScript allows direct video interpretation of a PostScript file. Also, PostScript files are ASCII, allowing them to be transported via e-mail (in most cases). PostScript files are stored in either .EPS or .PS formats. The .PS format is simply a file containing straight PostScript commands. Unless you have Display PostScript (i.e. NeXT), you will not be able to directly display a straight .PS file without a program to interpret it. One such program is GhostScript (which also allows PostScript files to be printed on non-PostScript devices). To compute .PS bounding boxes, see the next question. Note also that there is also the DSC (Document Structuring Conventions) format for PostScript that includes EPS files but not all general PostScript files. Please contact Adobe or the PostScript FAQ for more information. The Encapsulated PostScript File (.EPS) has the following requirements: 1. Specifies that it is an EPS file in the header 2. Avoids certain PostScript commands that may cause problems if the file were imported into a graphics application and may add a few additional ones as well to assist in importing 3. Include a "BoundingBox" comment to specify its size 4. May include a low-resolution bitmapped preview image 5. Should be one page long (though not a requirement as far as I know). It is often assumed that an EPS file must have a bitmapped preview image, but occasionally this is seen to be otherwise. This image allows you to see a preview of the PostScript file on machines that cannot directly display a PostScript image. In theory, the bitmap image is used only for display, but it is rumored that a few rare programs actually use the bitmapped image to print the image and not the PostScript commands. UGH! In summary for PostScript, the .PS files tend to be multi-page files intended for direct download to a PostScript output device. The .PS files are often created when you direct your printer output to a file. The .EPS files tend to be one page or smaller images that are meant to be imported as graphic images into an application. The best example of an .EPS file is clipart from a professional company. If you want more information about PostScript (gulp), you can get Jonathan Monsarrat's Postscript FAQ through FTP at rtfm.mit.edu (in the /pub/usenet directory). The Archives (question 3.9)also has some more in depth information about PostScript that is written by Jeff Bone and Chris Dorsey. In terms of PageMaker, it could care less which type of PostScript file it imports. If it is a .EPS image it will display the bitmap image (if present) to assist in positioning. If the image is not present but the BoundingBox command still is, then it should display a gray box the size of the image. If the file is a straight .PS file, PageMaker will display a gray box the size of the page. Note that this .PS file could be several pages long, although only taking up one page in PageMaker (one roundabout way to download a PostScript file to a printer). As for the bitmapped arena, many of the list's subscribers have expressed a preference for the TIFF format over PCX. Scanned images stored as bitmaps generally take less room than a Postscript version. Compressed TIFF images are even smaller, naturally. Another file type commonly used is the GIF format. This raster format was created by CompuServe and is used mainly for display purposes. The GIF format is compressed so that the image will take a minimal amount of space. JPG or JPEG files are further (lossy) compressions of GIF files that are commonly found; JPEGs tend to lose a minimal amount of image definition. If you would like some more information on graphic formats, please consult the SCANTIPS.FAQ and SCANTIP2.FAQ files in the Archives (question 3.9). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.2 When I import a graphic I just get a gray box. How can I compute a PostScript bounding box? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As mentioned in the previous question (5.1), PostScript graphic files may or may not contain a bitmapped "preview" image. When the PostScript file does not contain a preview image, then PageMaker will display a gray box of the size given in the Bounding Box comment within the PostScript file. If PM fails to find the Bounding Box line as well, it will likely display a box the size of an entire page. Since the preview image is simply for display purposes, the document will still print just fine. The printer will know what to do with the PostScript image. Having the image or at least a proper bounding box, however, can be very useful in placing the image correctly on the page. If you are importing graphics from another application, check to see if there is an option for including a preview image in the PostScript file. If so, this should solve the problem. If not, then if your PostScript image has a bounding box specifier, then you can position your image according to the gray box. The box should be the smallest rectangle that will completely encompass your image. If by chance the bounding box comment is not included, you can compute it manually fairly easily. This is often a case when importing a PostScript image that was printed to a PostScript file. If you get a gray box the size of an entire page (and you know the image is not that large), there are several options. First, you can use GhostView to determine the smallest box that encloses the image (see question 5.3). You can use GhostView to determine the coordinates on screen. Then, just add the bounding box lines as described later in this question. There are also a few PostScript programs that will add bounding boxes for you automatically. See the PostScript FAQ (mentioned in previous question) for more information. If you do not have GhostView, here is what you can do: (and many thanks goes to Chris Dorsey in New Zealand for this tip!) 1. Print the PostScript file to your printer 2. On the output, draw the smallest box that encloses the image on the page. 3. Using a ruler, measure the (X,Y) coordinates of the bottom left and upper right corners of the box, relative to the bottom left corner of the page. Convert the measurements to points (72 points per inch). You now have LLx (lower left X), LLy (lower left Y), URx (upper right X) and URy (upper right Y) coordinates. 4. Edit the PostScript file with a text editor. The file should begin with "%!PS-Adobe-x.x". If the file contains a screen "preview" image, this string will be preceded by 32 "gibberish" characters. Warning: take great care editing a PostScript file with a screen "preview" image (make a backup copy). The first 32 bytes specify (among other things) the offset and length of the screen image and PostScript script within the file; so the file must remain the same length! Plus, if it has a proper screen image, chances are likely that you do not need to do this procedure. 5. Insert the following line: %!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.1 at the start of the file, if an identical line is not already present. Note that case and whitespace are significant, but the version number is not important. 6. Look near the beginning of the file for a line like %%BoundingBox: 0 0 595 842 Add it if it is not there already (which is fairly likely). Be sure to add the line before the "%%EndComment" line. Note that case is significant and there must not be any spaces before the ":". The numbers are LLx, LLy, URx, URy. Change them to match the values you measured off the output, e.g.: %%BoundingBox: 72 72 189 350 7. Save the file. You can now import it into PageMaker. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.3 How do I convert from one graphic format to another? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taking the view as presented in the PostScript question, there are two realms of graphic formats: PostScript and bitmapped. In the bitmapped realm, there are many public domain programs that convert between the multitudes of bitmapped based graphics (checkout wuarchive). As for going from straight PostScript to Encapsulated PostScript, the conversion is usually not so cut-and-dry. (The good 'old "getting the E back into the EPS" problem.) Most of the times, simply adding a bounding box (question 5.2) will do the trick. For those of you who require a bitmap preview image, GhostScript and GhostView are collectively a powerful software package for manipulating and viewing PostScript files. GhostScript can be used to create an encapsulated preview image in addition to allowing non-PostScript printers to print PostScript files. Amazingly enough -- they are free and available on both MS-Windows and X-Windows platforms. GhostScript comes with an PS to EPS/EPSI converter; I hope to place this script and several alternatives up on the Archives (question 3.9) soon. (Thanks goes to Kevin Grover (grover@isri.unlv.edu) who is quite knowledgeable on the subject!) SmartArt and Adobe's LaserTalk are also rumored to have the ability to add the preview image to a PostScript file. Can anyone verify this? To convert from a bitmapped image to a EPS file you can use a tracing program such as Corel TRACE! or FreeHand. To go the opposite way (EPS to a bitmapped) there are such programs as GhostScript, FreeScript, and Freedom of Press. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.4 How do I import WordPerfect Equations? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Has anyone tried the new 5.0 or 6.0 WP import filter to see if it works for equations?) At this point, the WordPerfect filter for PageMaker will not translate WP equations. The current method is to print the equation to a PostScript file and then import this file into PageMaker. Unfortunately, however, if you are using a PC, a bitmapped image is likely not included, thus you will have to manually compute the bounding boxes mentioned in question 5.2. For Mac users, however, Ken Kreshtool points out that the Apple LaserWriter 8.x drivers now have an option to create an EPS file. After choosing the destination to be to a file, the driver will allow you to save the file as in "EPS Mac Enhanced Preview" format. Please note that this method will work for any item. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.5 How do I import PageMaker 3.0 documents into PageMaker 5.0? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the PC, there is a file on CompuServe called PM3PM4.ZIP that will do the conversion. It is, however, almost 2 megabytes compressed. If you do happen to download it, you will get many cheers from fellow list members if you would upload it to an FTP site. (Contact me personally if you do have it and I will tell you how to upload it to the Archives.) Judging by the size, however, it might be viable just to leave a barebones copy of PageMaker 4.0 on your system for conversions. No word on a Mac version yet -- if you hear about it, please let us know. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.6 How do I export the text of several (or all) unconnected stories? How can I export my PageMaker file to straight ASCII text? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to join together a several unconnected stories together into one main story, there is a rather ingenious way to do it. This technique is especially useful if you wish to export a PageMaker file to an ASCII file. First open up a new PageMaker file and issue the place command. Specify as a file your previous PageMaker file (make sure your PageMaker import filter is installed). A list of the stories will appear and then select the ones you want to join together. Keep in mind that you can in turn import the new story into the old file. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 5.7 How can I import documents created in XXXX? (Word, WordPerfect, etc.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no way that Aldus can keep all of their filters current with the rate at which upgrades are available these days. If you have a document/application that does not have a corresponding filter in PageMaker, consider the following checklist: 1. Do you have the latest version of PageMaker? Aldus releases new filter packs only for the newest versions of PM. 2. Do you have the latest filter pack from Aldus? For example, in the Archives (question 3.9) there is a filter patch for PageMaker 5.0 that includes filters for WordPerfect 5.1 & 6.0, MS Excel, Table Editor, GIF, CGM, and more. Other filter updates are continuously being made available (such as MS Word 6.0) -- check the archives or with the list for their availability. 3. Have you tried exporting the file in the original application in some other form, perhaps as an earlier version? For example, if you do not have the MS Word 6.0 filter, you can save your documents in the RTF format or as Word for Windows 2.0. 4. If there is no filter at all, consider printing to a PostScript file and import that. See question 5.4 for a more complete description. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Fonts and Special Characters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 6.1 What are the different types of fonts available? What is the difference between TrueType and PostScript fonts? Which is better for working in PageMaker and why? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Windows 3.1, Microsoft provides a type manager known as TrueType to compete with Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and other font managers. System 7 on the Mac also has TrueType. ATM has the advantage of a secure base and a large amount of compatible public domain PostScript fonts. TrueType is marketed by Microsoft to be faster than ATM, but this is very debatable. TrueType fonts also breakdown at higher resolutions (making them the bane of printing bureaus). ATM is likely your best bet, if Adobe/Aldus keeps it act up. Some people have claimed to experience problems using ATM and TrueType simultaneously. The problems range from system crashes to incorrect print-outs. It is not clear how many are actually attributed to having both managers active at once, and how many of those are actually resolvable. My suggestion is to try it out if you need both of them, but just be wary when a problem does arise. If you do trace something down to ATM and TT being active at the same time, let us know! Note also that some fonts (typically public domain and Corel Draw fonts) cause General Protection faults. See question 7.1 for a list of known problematic fonts. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 6.2 How can I obtain public domain fonts? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are many places offering public domain fonts. The ones listed under question 3.9 are a few. If you are looking for a specific font, try using archie. There is also a dedicated USENET group just for fonts. One note, however: many FTP sites are beginning to frown upon public domain fonts due to the large number of illegally copied typefaces out there (how do you tell the difference between the two?). There is also a wonderful World Wide Web site that will allow you to view fonts on-line before downloading them. Contact me personally for more information, or consult the fonts.txt file in the misc. directory in the Archives (question 3.9). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 6.3 How do I use the more bizarre characters? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the PC, you can use the Character Map that comes with Windows 3.1. After finding the desired symbol, look at which number you need. Then hold down the ALT key and punch the four/three digit number on your numeric keypad and then let up on the ALT key. If you are using Windows 3.0, look at the character table that came with your font package for the ANSI or ASCII number. On the Mac, simply use the Key Caps desk accessory under the Apple Menu to find the desired key combination. Peter Moller also suggests a shareware program called "PopChar". It can be found on the anonymous FTP site sumex-aim.stanford.edu. A chart enumerating the complete set of extended characters and the keystrokes required to access them can be found in the "CHARSET.PT4" template that is installed with PageMaker 4.x in the \PM4\TEMPLATES directory (PageMaker 4.x). Please note that many public domain fonts do not support the extended characters. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 6.4 How do I prevent hyphenation on one particular word? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- One trick is to put a soft hyphenation at the beginning of the word you do not wish to be hyphenated. This can be done by holding down the CTRL key while typing a hyphen. See your manual for other ideas. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 6.5 How do I keep control of all of these fonts? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The best answer is not to have "all of these fonts". One of the greatest mistakes a beginning DTPer makes is to use 20 different fonts on one small publication. The best thing to do is keep to a smaller number of fonts that serve your needs best. Plus, PageMaker's performance decreases dramatically with respect to the number of fonts installed in your system. Most publications look best when you use only two or so typefaces. Simpler is usually better when it comes to typefaces. But you really want to have all those extra fonts. For the Macintoshers, it helps out a great deal to sort your fonts into different sets of "suitcases". This way you can use only the fonts you need when working on a publication -- this will cut down on the resources you are using and make everything run faster. You can also then include the suitcase you are using when transferring the document to someone else in-house. For the PC, there is no handy inherent solution. I have made multiple copies of certain .INI files and then used a batch file to select between them. Keep in mind: the more fonts you have included, the slower your system becomes. For a commercial solution, there is Ares Software's FontMinder. It allows for "packs" similar to the Macintosh suitcase. Ares' number is 1-800-783-2737. There is one last suggestion for PC users that comes originally from a guy name Bill Gaston (modified for us DTPers): 1. Separate your Win 3.1 fonts categorically by the jobs performed. For example: one for newsletters; one for letters; one for books, etc. 2. Edit the [Ports] section of WIN.INI and add a line that looks like this: LPT1.LET= or LPT1.NWS= or LPT1.BOK= 3. The extension LET would be for assigning fonts for letters and so on. Any abbreviation can be used, and as many multiple lines of the same kind (such as the three examples). 4. From the Control Panel, Printer menu, (a printer should have already been selected and listed as connected to LPT1) use the add button to install the same printer again. Use the Connect menu to assign the newly added printer to LPT1.LET. Now edit WIN.INI again, where you'll find a heading [<printer>,LPT1.LET]. Go to the heading [<printer>,LPT1], copy only the lines that list the fonts you want to use with your new printer entry, and paste them under the [<printer>,LPT1.LET] entry. 5. Renumber them, starting with 1. Add a new line that reads "Softfonts=#" where # is the number of fonts that were copied. When you restart Windows, make the LPT1.LET your default printer, and only the soft fonts you have chosen for it will appear in your font menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. PC Specific ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 7.1 How do I get rid of General Protection Faults (GPFs)? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Monte would say -- "Get a Mac!". See question 3.6 for more :-) There are many other, less expensive ways to cut down on PageMaker crashes, first of which is to purchase Windows 3.1 if by rare chance you are still using 3.0. You will notice less of a frequency of errors. I am a firm believer that GPFs can be virtually eliminated with just a little detective work. If you can consistently reproduce the problem then you should be able to quickly narrow down the source of the problem and contact the appropriate people. Do not assume, however, that since a GPF occurs when working in PageMaker, that the GPF is caused by PageMaker. Just about anything can do it, from fonts to screen savers. Some suggestions in tracking down the source of a GPF include: 1. Cut down the number of fonts in your system. Particularly the number of public domain fonts. Many PC DTPer's woes derive from faulty public domain fonts. 2. Some Corel Draw fonts are also known to cause printing problems. The font detective Maureen Akins tracked down these Corel fonts to be problematic: CasperOpenFace, Nebraska, NewBrunswick, Paragon, Penguin, PenguinLight, SwitzerlandCondLight Italic, SwitzerlandLight (and maybe Geographic Symbols, Common Bullets, and SwitzerlandNarrow) To remove these from your system, you can simply comment out their entries in the WIN.INI file by placing a semicolon in front of their entry in the [fonts] section. Other Corel fonts may cause printing problems as well. 3. Aldus and Microsoft also have both said that you can sometimes reduce problems by making sure the "Page Independent" box in the PostScript printer driver box HAS AN "X" in it. 4. Try increasing your FILES= number in your config.sys. Microsoft suggests the value of 30. Microsoft also suggests that stacks be set to 9,256 for Dos 3.3 and above. 5. If you are using QEMM, spend the time to read the manual. QEMM assumes many things. 6. Set up a permanent swap file. If you have plenty of RAM, then create a very tiny swap file (force it to use the hundreds of dollars you invested.) 7. Other items to be aware of are public domain screen savers, public domain (and commercial!) disk caches and other various apps that run in the background. You can use Dr. Watson also to help you find the offenders (it comes with Windows 3.1). Finally, run your diagnostics program to check your system, as well as execute CHKDSK /F (or SCANDISK for you MS-DOS 6.0ers) every now and then to clean out lost allocations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 7.2 How can I have a default directory for my PageMaker data files? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under Windows 3.1 it is quite easy: simply select the PageMaker icon and then choose the "Properties" menu under the File Menu. Enter the directory under the Data Directories slot. For Windows 3.0 and PageMaker 4.x, though, you will need to do some tricking. Again, choose the Properties option. Change the default path to be the desired directory + PM4.EXE. For example: C:\MYFILES\PM4.EXE. After you press "OK", Windows will notify you that it cannot find the executable -- that's OK. If you lose the icon, choose Properties again and specify the real PageMaker path in the icon menu. Lastly, you will need to verify that PageMaker's directory is located on your DOS search PATH, which is usually set in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 7.3 I can only see 27 fonts on my font listing. How can I see more? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are using PageMaker 4.x, you are likely limited to seeing only 27 fonts on the PC due to the screen resolution. Many of the better video drivers will solve this problem when you up to 800x600 or higher resolutions. For the rest of you, though, your only option is to use the Type Specs menu (Control T). PageMaker 5.0 no longer has this problem. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 7.4 My EPS graphics are printing upside down! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are trying to print .EPS files from Windows 3.1, and they appear fine on the screen but are upside down when printed out, Jeff Bone has this answer: There is a bug in the Windows 3.1 PostScript printer driver (versions 3.5 through 3.52) that causes this. Aldus published a fix for this in their Tech Notes, simply open your WIN.INI file and locate the section pertaining to your printer (i.e.- [ Apple Laserwriter, LPT1]) and add the following line: LandScapeOrient=270 Make sure you add this to the printer section with the printer name and not the section that merely states "PostScript, LPT1" Best way to tell the difference is the fact that the named section will not have any font definitions. Also, be careful when you re-assign ports on your printer or assign the printer to FILE:, you will have to re-edit your WIN.INI to add the above line to the new section. As you can guess, this is not really correcting the problem, it is merely inverting the page so that everything else will rotate and your EPS graphic will stay in the proper place. The PostScript driver (3.5.3) for PageMaker 4.0 is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.cica.indiana.edu as the file /pub/pc/win3/drivers/printer/pscrip.exe. This solves the problem for American paper sizes (but regrettably not for the Imperial sizes.) It also adds some more printer descriptions and speeds the printing of compressed bitmaps slightly. If you are using PageMaker 5.0, it is not suggested that you use this driver, as PM5 ships with a more recent version (3.56). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 7.5 When I switch back to PM 4.0 my background turns brown or gray. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is happening here, thanks to Kirk Membry, is that PageMaker is not remapping the windows palette, causing the background to go to some (usually bland) color. One method in returning to normal colors is to pull up the color modification window and then canceling. This forces windows to remap the palette. You can do this easily by control clicking one of the items in the color palette window. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Macintosh Specific ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 8.1 How can I speed up this dang Mac? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In all fairness to Monte in question 7.1 -- Get a Pentium! Seriously, a couple of suggestions include: 1. Get rid of those unnecessary fonts! Also, up your Font Cache if you are using ATM and have the memory. 2. Up your Ram Cache in the Memory Control Panel. A good rule of thumb, if you have the memory, is to set the Ram Cache to the size of your System file, otherwise, get as close as you can to half of its size. Do this only after you have removed all of the Fonts and Sounds from the System and put them in their own suitcases, using something like Suitcase or Master Juggler. Doing this, your Mac will not have to read the System information from the disk as often, and will experience a noticeable improvement in speed. 3. If you don't need to work with color in PageMaker, set your Mac to Black and White or, at a minimum, 4 or 16 colors in the Monitors control panel. The more colors you use (without a separate video board) the slower you Mac works because the CPU spends all that much more time processing information. 4. Rebuilding your desktop file occasionally will help too. It tells how to do this in your Mac manual. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 8.2 I am trying to install PM 4.x, but it keeps asking for Disk 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a bug with certain System 7's when you are attempting to install PageMaker 4.x. If it continuously asks for Disk 1 (even when you do put it in the disk drive), simply press <Command> - . (That is, the Command key with the period key.) [Thanks Ken Weiss!] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> 9. THE END Thank you! I hope that the FAQ has come in handy for you. If you have any suggestions / questions you would like to see added to this FAQ, please contact me (gwp@cs.purdue.edu)! I can not tell you how much I appreciate comments! Geof.